Wow.

They were the only one bidding. Australia pulled out.

Mathguy64 said:

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They were the only one bidding. Australia pulled out.

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Well then.

Still crazy. Are they going to do it in the winter too or build all indoor venues?

FIFA is so arrogant it's almost nauseating.
All the crap they took for the last bid in that region, and they basically thumbed their nose at the world because they know there won't be a real boycott. In the end people, will watch and they will make their legit money and grift funds.
And to the point of this being the only bid, they could have waited several years and courted other bidders, they only awarded 2030 today too. But of course they didn't. So in the end, 2 of the last three WCs will have been in the most repressive but wealthy part of the world. Awesome.

oragator said:

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FIFA is so arrogant it's almost nauseating.
All the crap they took for the last bid in that region, and they basically thumbed their nose at the world because they know there won't be a real boycott. In the end people, will watch and they will make their legit money and grift funds.
And to the point of this being the only bid, they could have waited several years and courted other bidders, they only awarded 2030 today too. But of course they didn't. So in the end, 2 of the last three WCs will have been in the most repressive but wealthy part of the world. Awesome.

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2 out of 4?

They'll 100% do it in the winter again. The only people that can stop this are the p[layers. At this point, I'm kinda hoping for some sort of boycott. The amount of matches they play and the congestion on the schedule is insane.

At this point FIFA is a mercenary for hire.

10 years is a long time and Saudi are twice as wealthy and the new prince is really ambitious. They're slated to spend $1.5 trillion on their insane NEOM project, for example. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's held in indoor stadiums with real turf, just to flex that they can.

That said, I'm still not a fan.

Mathguy64 said:

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KCup17 said:

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At this point FIFA is a mercenary for hire.

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At this point?

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Or to go further… try naming a high-level sports organization that isn't.

deadbq03 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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KCup17 said:

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At this point FIFA is a mercenary for hire.

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At this point?

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Or to go further… try naming a high-level sports organization that isn't.

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Sure. But FIFA has been the gold medal winner forever in corruption, bribery, money laundering, racketeering and just plain bad people. They lapped the field long ago.

Yeah, typo sorry.
But the Middle East, even including North Africa, has 6 percent of the worlds population, and a fraction of the fan support of Europe or South America, and they will get half the bids over a 16 year span.
I also get the idea of growing the game and letting non power areas host, but if they were serious about it they would be in China. It has nearly 3 times the population of the ME and exponentially more growth potential. But what they don't have are oil rich sheikhs to curry favor with..If Beijing got favorable terms they would offer to host tomorrow, but that would mean FIFA giving up their lifestyle for a cycle. So it's nothing more than a grift, out in the open, again.

looking forward to the plastic tent hotels

Hey I'm just saying where they are at. Not when they got to this point

What on earth are they going to do about the booze and the gays?

What booze and what gays? -saudis

FIFA are the early adopters of grift and corruption. They proved long ago that you can get away with enriching yourselves without anyone caring enough to stop you. I would argue they were a great case study for the rise of authoritarianism and corruption in other parts of the world.

At let's be honest, Infantino and his horde are 100% accurate. No one will stop them in part because no one governs them and the "people" (fans) aren't going to stop watching/paying for elite football just because some Swiss dude is corrupt and making billions from it. Right or wrong (for the record, I think it's wrong) no one actually cares about corruption. People (broadly speaking) continue to prove time and time again in multiple arenas that they say they don't like it, but when push comes to shove, they will do absolutely zero to push back against it.